Word: orbiters
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
More than any other astronaut, Cooper displayed his bitterness at being passed over on earlier space flights. Yet when NASA doctors grounded Astronaut Donald Slayton because of a heart flutter, Cooper threatened to quit the program. After the fifth U.S. man-in-space flight, a superb six-orbit job by Wally Schirra, there were reports that last week's flight would be flown by Alan Shepard. Schirra, a close friend of Cooper's, put an end to that: he threatened to raise a public ruckus if Cooper were bypassed...
...extra hazard), but still less than steeplejacks. Since the standard premium varies with age, Senior Astronaut John H. Glenn Jr., 41, gets the highest bill. The lowest? To Major L. Gordon Cooper, 36, pounding along the beach at Cape Canaveral as a warm-up for his scheduled 22-orbit mission this week, which could be the biggest TV spectacular in many a moon (see SCIENCE...
...bird watchers turned out at the Cape Canaveral pad. And as the Thor-Delta rocket rose above the southern morning, the Bell Telephone Laboratories scientists who had built its cargo followed its course with rising confidence. Satisfied at last that their latest communication satellite, Telstar II, was in proper orbit, they put through a telephone call to their space communication station at Andover, Maine. "She's all yours. Go play with her!" It was hardly the type of space spectacular that President Kennedy warned would soon be touched off by Soviet scientists, but even so, Telstar II turned...
...craft on his own, Cooper was coached from the ground by another astronaut John Glenn. The Faith 7 pilot remained in complete control until hitting the water, as nonchalant he had been earlier in the flight, when he almost fell asleep during the countdown, napped during his second orbit, and slept for around 7 1/2 hours during the night...
...situation is symbolized by the astronauts. In orbit, they are living the greatest adventure in history, and much of the outcome depends on the soundness of their minds and the stoutness of their hearts, whose beat is heard over loudspeakers around the world. Yet even more depends on thousands of people on the ground who control the spacemen's ascent, their course, their return or their death...